Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 9, 1991 TAG: 9103090481
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JERRY BUCK ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"The thing that's really interesting is that it's about the family and family dynamics," Webb said. "The fact that my character's retarded is a story point. But I think the way the sisters and mother relate is very universal."
Webb plays Allison Campbell, who's being cared for by her sister (Amy Madigan). When Allison wins the lottery, her reformed alcoholic mother (Olympia Dukakis) returns after walking out on the family months earlier.
Allison doesn't understand the significance of her lottery prize. She's more fascinated by the balloons at the presentation party than the fake cardboard check and what it represents.
"There's so much friction between Olympia and Amy that I'm like the bone they're fighting over," Webb said.
"Everybody's grappling with problems, and you can't solve them in a two-hour movie. It deals with the ambivalence of how you can love someone and at the same time resent them. Just love by itself can't solve all problems. It's more of an examination of these universal problems than a solution."
"Lucky Day" represents Webb's first return to television since the spring of 1988, when she starred as USO entertainer Laurette Barber in the first six episodes of ABC's "China Beach."
"I went back to visit on the set of `China Beach' recently," she said. "It was like going back to visit your old high school. It's full of memories, but you're no longer a part of it."
"China Beach" wrapped its fourth season Feb. 4 with a scene at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington. It brings most of the characters together to remember their fallen comrades, although Webb does not appear. The series is due to return later this year with seven new episodes.
Webb was born in New York City and grew up in various cities on the East Coast - wherever her father's job as a bridge and road designer took the family.
"We'd go wherever the bridges were being built," she said. "I never was west of Washington until I was 21. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother in New York City."
The actress attended a Catholic girls' high school and later studied at the Boston Conservatory of Music and Drama and the Berkeley School of Music.
"I sang with a band in high school," she said. "I sang in New York bars that I was too young to drink in. I knew very quickly that I was a better actress than a singer."
Webb currently is starring in the film "Queens Logic."
She made her film debut in "Sid & Nancy" as the heroin-addicted girlfriend of rock singer Sid Vicious. Her performance won awards as best actress from the National Society of Film Critics, the Boston Film Critics and the San Francisco Film Critics.
Other film roles followed, including Danny DeVito's daffy girlfriend in "Twins" and Brian Dennehy's estranged socialite wife in "The Belly of an Architect." She co-starred with Bob Hoskins and Denzell Washington in "Heart Condition."
"Bob and I stayed good friends," she said. "Later, when he was doing `Mermaids' in Boston, I took time away from `Queens Logic' to take him pub crawling in Boston. I knew all the places from having gone to school there. Bob completely fit in everywhere we went."
The petite red-haired actress, who's married to a lawyer, also appears frequently on the stage. Her role in "House of Blue Leaves" won a Dramalogue Award in 1987, and the following year she won the award again plus the Los Angeles Drama Critics Award for her appearance in "The Model Apartment."
Webb is up for a new movie, but wouldn't talk about it.
"Never wear green shoes on stage, never throw your hat on a bed, never say `Macbeth' backstage and never talk about a new project," she said.
by CNB